This week, the University of Miami released the program information for the upcoming 28th iteration of Festival Miami, beginning Sept. 30. I’ll focus on the classical front, though there’s major news on the jazz side of things in an appearance by the legendary saxman Benny Golson (perhaps I’ll address this in a different post). One man who memorably combined the genres in his third stream concept was Gunther Schuller, and the American composer and hornist will be heard in the UM festival as a lecturer, composer and conductor.

Schuller was the guest earlier this year at the New Music Festival at Lynn University in Boca Raton, where he directed performances of his own music, as well as a new orchestral piece by the Taiwanese composer Chiayu Hsu. Schuller’s “Quintet for Horn and Strings” is scheduled for a concert Oct. 2, featuring the hornist Richard Todd.

The American pianist Claire Huangci, who won the Chopin Competition in Miami last year, returns to the city as part of the festival in music by Chopin and the First Piano Concerto (in F-sharp minor, Op. 1), of Sergei Rachmaninov. This concerto is rarely heard, although it was apparently the composer’s favorite of the four he wrote, and it’s exciting to see a young (21) talented pianist like Huangci champion the piece. She’ll perform on Oct. 9 with the Frost Symphony Orchestra.

Audiences will also get to hear the choral work of Karen Kennedy, the Towson University choral director who was tapped earlier this year to lead the Master Chorale of South Florida, taking over for Joshua Habermann after his departure for North Texas to lead the chorus of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Kennedy will direct the Frost Chorale and the Symphonic Choir in music that includes parts of William Schuman’s “The Mighty Casey,” a setting of the classic Ernest Lawrence Thayer poem about the Mudville baseball slugger who let his team down in the clutch. That concert is set for Oct. 11.

Next up after that is the Imani Winds (above, in a photo by Chris Carroll), a wind quintet distinctive for a number of reasons, not least of which is that its members are all African-Americans. The group is particularly interested in new music, commissioning multiple fresh pieces, and the most recent of its four albums celebrates the music and life of cabaret legend Josephine Baker with contemporary songs and original pieces by Imani hornist Jeff Scott and flutist Valerie Coleman. The Imanis will appear Oct. 12 in a concert that will also mark the debut of the Stamps Woodwind Quintet.

Wind music is featured Oct. 18 in a concert of pieces by Michael Colgrass, a much-respected American composer and teacher who made his home in Canada for years. On the program by the Frost Wind Ensemble are Colgrass’”The Winds of Nagual,” a piece based on the novels of Carlos Castaneda, and “Urban Requiem,” essentially a concerto for saxophone quartet and wind band. Colgrass’ “Tales of Power,” a Castaneda-inspired piece for solo piano, was heard last month in a series of concerts at the SoBe Institute of the Arts in Miami Beach, so here is another opportunity to hear more of this fascinating composer’s work.

Another veteran performer, the pianist Jerome Lowenthal, offers an all-Liszt program Oct. 22, which is the 200th birthday of the great Hungarian composer and pianist. Lowenthal, a specialist in the Romantic repertory, scheduled Liszt’s epic Sonata in B minor as well as selections from his “Annees de Pelerinage” cycle. This will be a major event for devotees of Liszt and of the piano in general, and it’s a fine way to mark the bicentenary.

The classical programs end Oct. 23 with music by the most celebrated of American crossover composers, George Gershwin. Pianist Santiago Rodriguez and UM Dean Shelly Berg will perform two-piano versions of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the “I Got Rhythm ” variations, “Cuban Overture” and “Three Preludes,” along with a fantasia on themes from “Porgy and Bess” arranged by the Australian pianist and composer Percy Grainger.

Two other classical concerts also need to be mentioned: A program of new works for string quartet by UM student composers (Oct. 5) and the annual faculty composers concert (Oct. 26). The faculty concert, for one, always provides a compelling look into what the school’s composition teachers are doing (besides writing exams).

It looks like an admirable series of concerts for Festival Miami, and it appeals to traditionalists and rebels equally, which should make these events especially memorable.